Gigabyte's GA660Plus TNT2 Ultra

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Gigabyte's GA660Plus TNT2 Ultra - Page 2

The
Gigabyte GA660Plus - TNT2-A

What
a difference a "rev." makes!

First things
first, we were finally able to run this version of the GA660Plus in
our motherboard with a 124MHz. Front Side Bus and an 82MHz. AGP bus.
The original "non-Plus"
version of the card could not handle this speed. The GA660Plus had
no issue here whatsoever.Here
are the rest of the system specs, just for the record.

We are now
officially no longer using Quake2 benchmark numbers here at Hot
Hardware. We feel Quake 3 Arena's Timedemo benchmark gives good
repeatable figures that are highly reliable metrics for evaluation
of performance. Quake3 also really stresses even the latest of 3D
Graphics Accelerators and puts them through their paces.

Let's see how
the GA660Plus faired...

In every
resolution, with the exception of 1600X1200, the GA660Plus is one of
the fastest cards we have tested at Hot Hardware. Only the G400MAX
can outpace this new TNT2-A based card at the highest resolution. A
very interesting coincidence is the fact that the G400MAX actually
scored the exact same number at 1024X768/32bit color! Yes, we
checked our figures three times! Talk about "neck and
neck"! However, the TNT2-A pulls away from the pack at the
lower resolutions.

Although
Forsaken is a somewhat older game, it provides a very level playing
field as a Direct 3D Performance measurement. We use the "Ship
Demo" playback test.

These are very
strong numbers as well. They show the GA660Plus to be about 5 -10%
faster in the Forsaken demo vrs. the last TNT2 we ran through this
suite.

In our opinions
3DMark99 MAX is the best D3D Benchmark in town. Here's the REAL
juice!

This number show
the GA660Plus to be THE fastest of all TNT2s we have tested in a
Direct 3D benchmark, falling ever so slightly behind the G400MAX in
this test. Great stuff Gigabyte!!

The
Verdict...

Our
opinion is that the Gigabyte GA660Plus is the best TNT2 based video
card your money can buy at this point in time. The 2D desktop image
quality is superb and the 3D Graphics numbers are best in the TNT2
space. The NVidia GeForce chipset based cards are just starting to
hit the shelves now so you may be able to pick one of these little
gems up for cheap money. We have to commend the folks at Gigabyte
for really squeezing out every bit of performance from the TNT2! You
can't go wrong with this card.

(Temp-O-Meter
scores are rated on a number of key metrics including performance,
stability, ease of installation, compatibility, feature set, "overclockability"
and component quality. A perfect score is 100 )